Residential and commercial property transactions in the six special municipalities grew nearly 10 percent in the first two months of this year from the period a year earlier, as the local property market continued its uptrend.
According to data released by the Taipei, New Taipei City, Taoyuan, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung city governments, transactions of homes, offices and shops during the period rose 9.76 percent from a year earlier to 30,640 units.
Last month alone, transactions in the six cities fell 7.8 percent year-on-year to 11,300 units due to the reduced number of working days as a result of the six-day Lunar New Year holiday. Last year, the holiday was in January.
The growth in property transactions shows that increased interest in buying continued after last year’s 11.85 percent year-on-year increase, a positive sign for the local property market, Sinyi Realty Inc (信義房屋) research manager Tseng Ching-der (曾敬德) said.
All of the cities reported growth in housing transactions in the first two months, with Taipei witnessing sales growth of 15.1 percent from a year earlier to 3,687 units.
The Taipei market benefited from rising demand in Neihu (內湖), Zhongshan (中山) and Daan (大安) districts, as homebuyers took advantage of a fall in housing prices, National Reality Co (全國不動產) manager Hsu Chih-yao (許智堯) said.
Tainan recorded the highest growth of 32.2 percent during the period, with residential and commercial property sales totaling 3,345 units, while Kaohsiung reported 4,996 transactions, up 7.5 percent from a year earlier.
The growth in Tainan and Kaohsiung reflects property developers’ efforts to attract buyers by launching new projects, particularly small homes at lower prices, Eastern Realty (東森房屋) said.
Housing transactions in New Taipei City, Taoyuan and Taichung grew 0.3 percent, 8 percent and 13 percent with 7,684, 4,873 and 6,055 units respectively, after an increase in properties on the market, National Realty said.
Amid expectations of rising inflation, many property investors are this year expected to pour funds into the market, so the strong buying in the first two months is expected to continue for the rest of the year, National Realty head of research Chang Ching-yun said.
However, home prices are expected to remain in consolidation mode this year, Chang added.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained